Cuticle supplementation and nitrogen recycling by a dual bacterial symbiosis in a family of xylophagous beetles.

ABSTRACT: Many insects engage in stable nutritional symbioses with bacteria that supplement limiting essential nutrients to their host. While several plant sap-feeding Hemipteran lineages are known to be simultaneously associated with two or more endosymbionts with complementary biosynthetic pathways to synthesize amino acids or vitamins, such co-obligate symbioses have not been functionally characterized in other insect orders. Here, we report on the characterization of a dual co-obligate, bacteriome-localized symbiosis in a family of xylophagous beetles using comparative genomics, fluorescence microscopy, and phylogenetic analyses. Across the beetle family Bostrichidae, most investigated species harbored the Bacteroidota symbiont Shikimatogenerans bostrichidophilus that encodes the shikimate pathw

SUBMITTER: Kiefer JST 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10284843 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature